Anna, Egle and Emma make an End-of-an-Era cake.

Chocolate and banana cake with smoothie

Today's cake was a very special one, both in taste (this is currently my favourite cake recipe) and in what it represents. Like all good things (such as picnics, summer holidays and even, sadly, cake), our time in halls is coming to an end. In just a couple of days, we'll all be going our separate ways and leaving halls, most probably forever. As much as I'll miss living with my flat mates, we will all still see each other. If truth be told, it'll be the place we'll miss the most, and its soul-stirring symphony of sounds. Ah, the poignant harmonies of the drunken mob in the early hours of the morning, the persistant melody of the buzzer (almost always people depositing flyers) and the recurring motif of the night time fire alarm, with the occassional burst of opera blaring out from Anna's room. And so it was with tears in our eyes, and icing sugar on our faces, that we made our farewell cake, drowned our tears in homemade raspberry smoothie and said goodbye to our old flat and its stale, musty, homely scent.


Raspberry smoothie

• Cover frozen berries with apple juice and blend.
• Blend in a banana and optional soya yoghurt.
• Serve with banana chips and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Chocolate banana cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5.
• Sift together 285g plain flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 50g cocoa and 225g sugar.
• Mix in 10floz water (or 8floz water and 2floz soya milk) and 1 cup vegetable oil.
• Mash 1 banana and add to the mix.
• Pour mixture into 2 greased 8" tins and bake for 40 minutes.
• Leave to cool, then smother in chocolate fudge icing and banana chips.
• Serve with soya custard.

Chocolate fudge icing

• Melt 50g soya/sunflower/vegetable spread.
• Stir in 3 tbsp water, 200g icing sugar, 50g cocoa and 1 tsp vanilla essence.
• Try not to eat it all before it reaches the cake...!

Recipe source: The Cake Scoffer
Sound track: 'Banana Pancakes' by Jack Johnson (hey, it nearly fits!)